Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 12/1/18

FanGraphs | Sheryl Ring: The Dodgers released a report to their investors that they would be capping payroll to around $200 million, which has been alarming because you can’t lie to investors, generally speaking. But it’s probably just much ado about nothing, as the team can still likely fit their roster comfortably within that number, but if they don’t, then the caveat is that the report was a forecast and not a promise.

Baseball Prospectus | Jarrett Seidler: MLB signed a gambling agreement with MGM casinos, which is the first time the league has even partially accepted gambling in over a century. But in this case, there are a lot of funky things that can happen. What data will MGM have access to, and what wagers will be available? It’s definitely problematic if we’re betting over/under’s on spin rate, especially if MGM has internal Statcast data that hasn’t been released to the public, just to name one potential issue aside from the whole “throwing games” thing.

The Ringer | Michael Baumann: As we debate the merits of age is it pertains to free agency, it’s useful to look at Jason Heyward, who didn’t exactly live up to the hype. He was having a promising career arc, only to see injuries, poor contact quality, and a failed, new approach cause his performance to plummet. In an era when the game is younger than the past, there will be young flops in a way we haven’t seen as much in the past.